PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Journal tackles aging policy issues raised by White House

2015-04-17
(Press-News.org) In anticipation of the forthcoming 2015 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA), The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) has produced a special issue of The Gerontologist that outlines a vision for older adults' economic and retirement security, health, caregiving, and social well-being for the next decade and beyond. And because this year also marks the 50th anniversary of Medicare, Medicaid, and the Older Americans Act, as well as the 80th anniversary of Social Security, articles within the issue also explore ways to safeguard the continuing success of these programs.

The WHCoA has been held once every decade since the 1960s and offers a unique opportunity to shape the national landscape for policies affecting older Americans. For 2015, four main topic areas have been chosen: ensuring retirement security; promoting healthy aging; providing long-term services and supports; and protecting older Americans from exploitation, abuse, and neglect.

Writing in the opening editorial of the new special issue, GSA Director of Public Policy and Professional Affairs Greg O'Neill, PhD, and The Gerontologist editor Rachel Pruchno, PhD, state the 2015 WHCoA is the catalyst for developing an aging policy designed to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by the aging of the U.S. population in the decade to come.

"The papers presented in this special issue highlight these challenges and opportunities, while also showing us several innovative solutions through their thoughtful recommendations," O'Neill and Pruchno write. "We view them as visionary -- laying the foundation for effective policies supporting an aging society in the years ahead."

Policy prescriptions for all four topic areas of the WHCoA are included within the articles. They include, but are not limited to, recommendations for a universal private pension system and strengthening Social Security and Medicare through revenue increases rather than benefit cuts; demonstrations of how age-friendly community initiatives can make social and/or physical environments more conducive to older adults' health, well-being, and ability to age in place and in the community; a template for the delivery, supply, and funding of caregiver respite care services; and calls for a coordinated approach to reduce elder mistreatment.

The latest issue of The Gerontologist is part of larger effort GSA is undertaking to help ensure the 2015 WHCoA is a success. The organization convened a listening session at its most recent Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, DC, welcoming WHCoA Executive Director Nora Super. GSA also is a founding member of the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, which together with AARP is holding a series of five WHCoA regional forums designed to gain input on the key issues from older Americans, their families, caregivers, and gerontological thought leaders. In June, another GSA journal, Public Policy & Aging Report, will dedicate an issue to creating positive policy changes related to the four themed topics of the WHCoA.

INFORMATION:

The Gerontologist is a peer-reviewed publication of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society -- and its 5,500+ members -- is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA's structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational branch, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study links brain anatomy, academic achievement, and family income

2015-04-17
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Many years of research have shown that for students from lower-income families, standardized test scores and other measures of academic success tend to lag behind those of wealthier students. A new study led by researchers at MIT and Harvard University offers another dimension to this so-called "achievement gap": After imaging the brains of high- and low-income students, they found that the higher-income students had thicker brain cortex in areas associated with visual perception and knowledge accumulation. Furthermore, these differences also correlated ...

DNA blood test detects lung cancer mutations

2015-04-17
Geneva, Switzerland, 17 April 2015 -- Cancer DNA circulating in the bloodstream of lung cancer patients can provide doctors with vital mutation information that can help optimise treatment when tumour tissue is not available, an international group of researchers has reported at the European Lung Cancer Conference (ELCC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The results have important implications for the use of cancer therapies that target specific cancer mutations, explains Dr Martin Reck from the Department of Thoracic Oncology at Lung Clinic Grosshansdorf, Germany, who presented ...

One in 4 advanced lung cancer patients started on firstline treatment before EGFR test results available

2015-04-17
Geneva, Switzerland, 17 April 2015 -- Almost one in four patients (24%) with advanced lung cancer in Europe, Asia and the US are not receiving EGFR test results before being started on treatment, researchers report at the European Lung Cancer Conference. Medical Oncologist James Spicer from King's College London at Guy's Hospital, London, and colleagues studied how widely hospitals had implemented testing for mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene among lung cancer patients. Targeted therapies can more effectively treat cancers that are known to carry ...

NYU researchers find diabetes perceptions vary according to risk factors

2015-04-17
Recent research published in The Diabetes Educator by Dr. Shiela Strauss, associate professor of nursing and co-director of the Statistics and Data Management Core for NYU's Colleges of Nursing and Dentistry, along with a team of NYU researchers, reveals differing perceptions among adult populations at-risk for diabetes that may offer new approaches to diabetes education and prevention. "We found that there are differences in the perceptions of those who are at risk for diabetes that depend on the specific characteristics that place them at risk," said Strauss. Illness ...

Disney Researchers show soft sides with layered fabric 3-D printer

2015-04-17
A team from Disney Research and Carnegie Mellon University have devised a 3-D printer that layers together laser-cut sheets of fabric to form soft, squeezable objects such as bunnies, doll clothing and phone cases. These objects can have complex geometries and incorporate circuitry that makes them interactive. "Today's 3-D printers can easily create custom metal, plastic, and rubber objects," said Jim McCann, associate research scientist at Disney Research Pittsburgh. "But soft fabric objects, like plush toys, are still fabricated by hand. Layered fabric printing is one ...

Disney researchers use passive UHF RFID tags to detect how people interact with objects

2015-04-17
Disney Research has demonstrated that battery-free, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags can be used to cheaply and unobtrusively determine how people use and interact with daily objects, enabling new types of interactive play, smart homes and work environments, and new methods for studying consumer shopping habits. RFID tags are designed to simply report an identifying code when energized by an RFID reader, but a Disney Research team directed by Dr. Alanson Sample showed that the radio frequency signals transmitted by these tags provide a unique RF signature which ...

A blueprint for clearing the skies of space debris

2015-04-17
An international team of scientists have put forward a blueprint for a purely space-based system to solve the growing problem of space debris. The proposal, published in Acta Astronautica, combines a super-wide field-of-view telescope, developed by RIKEN's EUSO team, which will be used to detect objects, and a recently developed high-efficiency laser system, the CAN laser that was presented in Nature Photonics in 2013, that will be used to track space debris and remove it from orbit. Space debris, which is continuously accumulating as a result of human space activities, ...

Cognitive problems are common after cardiac arrest

2015-04-17
Half of all patients who survive a cardiac arrest experience problems with cognitive functions such as memory and attention. This has been shown by a major international study led from Lund University. Surprisingly, however, a control group comprising heart attack patients had largely the same level of problems. This suggests that it is not only the cardiac arrest and the consequent lack of oxygen to the brain that is the cause of the patients' difficulties. The study led by Lund University involved 950 cardiac arrest patients in Europe and Australia. Six months after ...

Evolution puts checks on virgin births

Evolution puts checks on virgin births
2015-04-17
This news release is available in Japanese. It seems unnatural that a species could survive without having sex. Yet over the ages, evolution has endowed females of certain species of amphibians, reptiles and fish with the ability to clone themselves, and perpetuate offspring without males. Researchers at the at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) found that in species where females have evolved the ability to reproduce without males relatively recently, fertilization is still ensuring the survival of the maximum number of healthy ...

Stomach ulcers in cattle

Stomach ulcers in cattle
2015-04-17
Scientists at the Vetmeduni Vienna investigated whether stomach ulcers in cattle are related to the presence of certain bacteria. For their study, they analyzed bacteria present in healthy and ulcerated cattle stomachs and found very few differences in microbial diversity. Bacteria therefore appear to play a minor role in the development of ulcers. The microbial diversity present in the stomachs of cattle has now for the first time been published in the journal Veterinary Microbiology. Gastritis and stomach ulcers in humans are often caused by the bacterium Helicobacter ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013-2022

Discovery suggests new strategy against follicular lymphoma

Making the future too bright: how wishful thinking can point us in the wrong direction

Ochsner Health named to Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Workplaces 2024 for Job Starters

Three-year study of young stars with NASA’s Hubble enters new chapter

North Carolina takes the lead in PFAs research with Collaboratory’s $3 million investment to expand the state’s research capacity

Is it the school, or the students?

Exploring the relationship between HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and the incidence of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis – findings from Denmark

Music: Song lyrics have become simpler and more repetitive since 1980

Environment: More than half of Colorado River’s water used to irrigate crops

When inequality is more than “skin-deep”: Social status leaves traces in the epigenome of spotted hyenas in Tanzania

Study explores the future of at-home cancer treatment

First performance standards published to measure the effectiveness of lifestyle medicine treatments

To keep volunteers, connect them

Suppressing boredom at work hurts future productivity, study shows

Older brain cells linger unexpectedly before their death

Clear shift in arterial diseases in diabetes

Celebrating half a century of pioneering excellence: EBMT marks its 50th anniversary

Ancient DNA reveals the appearance of a 6th century Chinese emperor

DNA study IDs descendants of George Washington from unmarked remains, findings to aid service member IDs going back to World War II

Familial Alzheimer’s disease transferred via bone marrow transplant in mice

Perspectives of oncologists on the ethical implications of using AI for cancer care

Industry payments to US physicians by specialty and product type

Andrew E. Place, MD, PhD appointed as Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center Vice President, Pediatric Chief Medical Officer

COVID-19 antibody discovery could explain long COVID

Wild plants face viral surprise

Storing electrons from hydrogen for clean chemical reactions

Unlocking how to use mRNA to target Alzheimer’s disease

Kessler Foundation secures $770,000 in grants to advance leading-edge spinal cord research

Going ‘back to the future’ to forecast the fate of a dead Florida coral reef

[Press-News.org] Journal tackles aging policy issues raised by White House